ARCADIA, Calif. — When the gates swung open for the start of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic late Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita Park, it did not so much resemble a high-stakes horse race as it did Nascar on hooves.
Bayern, bolting out of the seventh gate, took a hard left turn and careened into the favorite, Shared Belief, and the 14-horse field quickly became bottled up.
That start set the tone for a wild, contentious and scintillating finish.
The ability to break to the front was critical for Bayern, who was able to use his speed from the start.
As the field turned for home in the mile-and-a-quarter race, Toast of New York, an 18-1 shot, refused to go away. California Chrome surged toward them both on the outside, pulling within half a length. But Bayern turned back California Chrome and held off Toast of New York down the stretch to give the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his first Classic victory.
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Bayern ran in 1 minute 59.88 seconds and paid $14.20, $8 and $5.20 at 6-1 odds. Shared Belief finished fourth, three and a half lengths behind California Chrome, as he lost for the first time in eight career starts.
Bayern had to survive not only a stacked field but also a nearly 10-minute inquiry by officials over the start of the race.
Bayern’s jockey, Martin Garcia, and Baffert said there was nothing improper about the start.
Garcia said that Bayern “just broke really sharp,” adding: “There was nothing I could do. I corrected right away.”
Baffert was also unapologetic, saying: “It’s racing luck. You can’t control the start. You don’t like to see it — when he broke in like that, I was like, oh.”
More than 90 minutes after the race, the California Horse Racing Board issued a statement explaining that no action had been taken because “the incident occurred in a part of the race where the horses interfered with were not cost the opportunity to place where they were reasonably expected to finish.”
But jockey Mike Smith, who rode Shared Belief, said the bump had changed the entire complexion of the race.
“I think it cost me the race,” he said.
Shared Belief had a seven-race unbeaten streak and was the 5-2 favorite coming in.
Shared Belief’s trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, believed that he had the best horse, last year’s Eclipse Award winner as a 2-year-old, and the best jockey in Smith, who has won more races and prize money at the Breeders’ Cup than any other jockey.
Smith, who has made Santa Anita his home track for more than a decade, had ridden Judy the Beauty to victory earlier Saturday in the Filly and Mare Sprint, holding off a furious charge by Better Lucky.
The day’s next-best finish came in the seventh race, when Bobby’s Kitten charged from last place over the final 200 yards to win the Turf Sprint in a photo finish.
Rosie Napravnik, who announced after winning the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Friday that she was expecting a child and would be retiring after Saturday — at least for a while — had a going-away present. She rode Top Decile, a 10-1 shot, to second in the Juvenile Fillies.
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The Classic, though, was the main event, and it had story lines as juicy as the finish.
Although Shared Belief was viewed as the best horse, he did not run in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont last spring because of a hoof injury. California Chrome, with his charming, small-time trainer, Art Sherman, had captured the public’s attention by winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown. Also in the field were Tonalist, who ruined Chrome’s bid at the Belmont, and the Florida Derby winner, Cigar Street, who is co-owned by the former N.B.A. player Rashard Lewis.
Chrome’s co-owner Steve Coburn, who was upset last spring that Tonalist and others had avoided his horse in some races, was not so churlish Saturday.
“We knew it was going to happen,” Coburn said of the day Shared Belief would meet California Chrome. “But there’s more than two horses in this field. It’s the best of the best. I’m just hoping for a clean, safe race — and that the owner doesn’t pass out.”
On this day, he almost got his wish.
TEXAS RED IN AN UPSET Texas Red pulled a 13-1 upset in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Kent Desormeaux was aboard for his fifth Breeders’ Cup victory. His brother Keith Desormeaux, the trainer and a co-owner, got his first win in the championships.
Texas Red beat Carpe Diem, a 9-5 favorite, by six and a half lengths. The time was 1:41.91 for a mile and a sixteenth. The Juvenile is the first major test for 2-year-olds on the road to next year’s Kentucky Derby. (AP)
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